Look for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) — shown in a scene from the second season of “Stranger Things” — to be an item when the highly anticipated season of the Netflix hit drops July 4.

The year will bring high-profile endings, returns and reboots

Brie Larson stars in Marvel Studios’ upcoming “Captain Marvel,” a film likely to set the stage for key events in “Avengers: Endgame,” which will come a weeks later.

Disney

Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen and Kit Harington’s Jon Show finally met in the seventh season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” What will happen to the pair when the final season lands in April?

HBO

Look for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) — shown in a scene from the second season of “Stranger Things” — to be an item when the highly anticipated season of the Netflix hit drops July 4.

Netflix

Margot Robbie poses as Sharon Tate — an actress who was murdered by Charles Manson’s followers — whom she portrays in writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Columbia Pictures

One of Disney’s high-profile 2019 releases will be a live-action version of “Aladdin.”

Disney

Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan performs in 2014. The metal act is expected to release its first album since 2006’s “10,000 Days” this year.

While the year is poised to have a ton of cool stuff hitting screens big and small, my mind is most on the conclusions of one of my favorite TV shows of all time, HBO’s epic “Game of Thrones”; of my favorite movie franchise of all time, the very flawed Skywalker saga of “Star Wars”; and the second-part of one of my favorite films of last year, “Avengers: Infinity War” — “Avengers: Endgame.”

What follows is a largely indulgent rundown of 15 works — or thematically related groups of works — to which I’m greatly looking forward and that I think largely will shape the year in pop culture.

1.‘Game of Thrones’ (HBO series, April)

How will it all end, this song of ice and fire? We will have waited almost two years to see the conclusion of the HBO version of author George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy saga set in the realm of Westeros, a world full of dragons, zombie-like white walkers, large wolves, the occasional witch and, of course mere mortals — of the power-hungry variety and the simply heroic.

It hasn’t just been tough for us, the fans, to wait for the end. In a piece from Entertainment Weekly in November, star Emilia Clarke, who portrays Daenerys Targaryen, called the effect of reading the final scripts “profound.” (“I completely flipped out,” she added.) Meanwhile, Kit Harington, who plays the second of the show’s two biggest figures, hard-to-kill bastard Jon Snow, says he wept more than once during a table reading of the final season.

It’s getting harder for me to stick with this prediction in light of how the seventh season unfolded, but I’m maintaining that to save the realm, Jon will have to seize power from — and perhaps even kill — Daenerys. She has always wanted power; the realm has always needed him to have power. There’s a big difference.

HBO is giving us only six episodes as it soars to whatever conclusion is planned. That’s the bad news. The good news is that each is said to be big-budget, mini-movie affair that stretches beyond the usual running time of about an hour.

The winds of winter are swirling, but we dream of spring.

2. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (Theaters, April 26)

‘Avengers: Infinity War,” a massive comic-book team-up on the big screen, seriously delivered the goods when it thundered into theaters last April. Directors and Cleveland natives Joe and Anthony Russo provided two and a half hours of our favorite Marvel heroes — from Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to Spider-Man (Tom Holland) to the Guardians of the Galaxy — coming together to take on the Mad Titan, Thanos (Josh Brolin).

So, OK, Thanos succeeded in wiping out 50 percent of all life in the universe, including a bunch of our heroes. (Hey, things happen.) However, before you make plans to attend the funerals of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spidey, pencil in seeing Disney-owned Marvel Studios’ “Captain Marvel” (March 8), which should begin setting the stage for the resurrections to come. (I mean, come on — we’re getting a new “Spider-Man” movie later this year.)

The guess here is the Russos, before moving on to some exciting non-Marvel project, provide us with one more superhero adventure for the ages.

3. ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ (Theaters, Dec. 20)

If you would have told me a few years ago that the final film in the Skywalker Saga would be only third on this list, I would have called you a “scruffy-looking nerf herder.”

Alas, with 2017’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — the film that precedes this one in the saga — writer-director Rian Johnson accomplished the impossible: He had me walking out of the theater almost completely disinterested in what was to come next. I disagree with almost every major story choice he made, chief among them killing the hero most synonymous with the series, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), and telling us that sequel-trilogy heroine Rey merely is the child of nobodies, meaning she has no significant blood connection to key figures in the saga.

My interest picked up a bit when JJ Abrams was announced at the director and co-writer of the upcoming film, taking the reins from the fired Colin Trevorrow (“Jurassic World”). I didn’t completely adore Abrams’ “Star Wars” relaunching “The Force Awakens” in 2015, but his vision for what “Star Wars” should be is a lot closer to mine than is Johnson’s, it would seem.

The Internet is full of rumors of how Abrams will undo much of what Johnson did, including resurrecting Skywalker — Hamill will be in the movie, but possibly simply as a ghost — but we’ll see. I’m sure I’ll become a lot more excited when we get an actual title and a teaser trailer.

May the Force be with us before “Star Wars” heads in new directions following this film.

4. ‘Stranger Things’ (Netflix, July 4)

Netflix is designed largely for binges of TV shows, but, prior to the debut of this addictive sci-fi horror series, the platform never really compelled me to watch one episode after another. (Hmm, a second “House of Cards”? Nah, I can wait.)

From brothers Matt and Russ Duffer, the addictive “Stranger Things” plays like “E.T.”-meets-Stephen King, with its tale of 1980s youths Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) who find themselves trying to fight off evil supernatural forces in their small town and in “The Upside Down.” Also, David Harbour — who has portrayed myriad supporting characters on the big screen — is a joy as the town’s lovably schlubby sheriff, Jim Hopper.

Like “Game of Thrones,” “Stranger Things” frustratingly sat out 2018, so we should all be ready for a hard-core binge when it resurfaces on our streaming devices.

We don’t know much about season three yet, but a recently released clip teasing the mid-summer release date confirms the action is set around the Fourth of July 1985, right when “Back to the Future” drives 88 miles into theaters. (Hmmm, could time travel be in our young heroes’ future?)

5. ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ (theaters, July 26)

Anytime writer-director Quentin Tarantino releases a film it’s an event worth celebrating. And, if the auteur responsible for two of my favorite films — “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds” — sticks to his plan of stopping after 10 films, this one will prove to be his penultimate effort.

When you think about Tarantino’s tastes and interests, it’s amazing it’s taken him this long to get around to famed cult leader and murder Charles Manson. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — which has frustratingly not dropped a trailer yet — is set in 1960s Los Angeles with the Manson murders as the backdrop.

6. ‘Downton Abbey’ (Theaters, Sept. 20)

Oh, how I’ve missed you, my old-timey British friends!

No, I don’t expect your big-screen return to do anything particularly interesting or bold, but I’m just so happy to venture back to the oh-so-dignified world created by writer Julian Fellowes that’s set in the property’s fictional namesake Yorkshire country estate in the early 20th century and that surrounds the goings-on of the aristocratic Crawley family.

When the show ended its six-season run in 2015, I assumed that was that. However, everything thing comes back, often sooner than later these days, and I will cherish more time with Hugh Bonneville’s Robert Crawley, aka Lord Grantham; Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary Talbot, Maggie Smith’s Violet Crawley; and, last but certainly not least, Jim Carter’s Mr. Carson, the butler.

Welcome back to Downton Abbey.

7. ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ (Theaters, July 5)

Count me among those tired of big-screen Spider-Man reboots … BEFORE seeing 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Sony Pictures, which long had held the movie rights to Spidey, teamed up with Marvel Studios to fold the Webslinger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and gave us the best cinematic approach to the hero yet.

This time around, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will have an adventure that involves the typically villainous Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). Also reassuring is that “Homecoming” director Jon Watts is returning, as are two of the that highly entertaining movie’s scribes.

8. ‘Killing Eve’ (BBC America, TBD)

The eight-episode first season of this series about the mutual obsession between an assassin, Villanelle (Jodie Comer), and an MI5 officer, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), trying to catch her proved to be my favorite bloody slice of television in 2018, even if it ended weaker than it began.

Its loss of momentum is not why I enter the second season with apprehension, however. Reportedly, the brilliant Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”) has been too busy to script the episodes, yielding that task to Emerald Fennell (“Call the Midwife”). As great as Oh and, especially, Comer were in the first season, it’s the writing that truly set the show apart.

Well, here’s hoping that “Eve” kills us again.

9. ‘True Detective’ (HBO, Jan. 13)

OK, the second season of writer Nic Pizzolatto’s crime anthology drama series was a mixed bag in 2015. Still, we can’t forget the excellence of the first season — lifted by terrific work by leads Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey — when it aired on the premium cable network the previous year.

After an arguably needed hiatus, the series returns with Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight) in the lead role as a detective working in the Ozarks during three time periods.

Pizzolatto wrote or co-wrote all the episodes, and Season Three will see him make his directorial debut.

10. New streaming platforms (and their content)

As someone about to take the leap so many already have — away from traditional cable toward a world with only streaming platforms — I’m very interested in Disney+ and Apple’s upcoming content platform.

Disney has announced the former will debut at some point in 2019, eventually bringing with it, among many more no doubt tantalizing offerings, two “Star Wars” live-action series. The first, “The Mandalorian,” boasts an announced cast that includes Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito and, more surprisingly Nick Nolte and Werner Herzog. Disney has so many huge properties, from Marvel heroes to its arsenal of princesses, it’s hard to see how Disney+ won’t be a must-have for many folks.

And then there’s Apple’s yet-to-be-named service, which, to be clear, I’m merely speculating will launch this year. It would make sense though, as the tech giant has announced a number of series with high-profile talents attached. As someone who owns multiple Apple mobile devices and Apple TVs, I hope the rumor that the service will be free on said devices proves to be true.

11. “Deadwood” (HBO, TBD)

Unlike the return of “Downton Abbey,” we’ve had to wait forever and a day for the continuation of HBO’s Western series from the mid-2000s. I’d really given up hope that we’d see it, but this likely one-off TV movie is rumored for a spring debut. It is said to be set several years after the events of the show, with South Dakota about to join the Union — an event that doesn’t please Deadwood town heavyweight Al Swearengen (Ian McShane). To see McShane play Al again — even if time has taken a toll on the man who violently straddles the line between heroism and villainy — should prove to be a gift.

12. New versions of old Disney favorites (Theaters)

The animated originals aren’t that near and dear to my heart, but “Aladdin” (1992) and “The Lion King” (1994) are cherished by many, and I’m certainly looking forward to the coming updates. “Aladdin” (May 24) is helmed by the hit-and-miss Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes”) and boasts Will Smith as the Genie, the role famously voiced by the late Robin Williams in the original. The new photorealistic animated version of “The Lion King” (July 19), meanwhile is directed by Jon Favreau (2016’s “The Jungle Book”) and boasts an all-star casts that includes Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, Beyonce Knowles-Carter and, last but not least, a returning James Earl Jones. We’re also getting a new live-action “Dumbo” (March 29), directed by Tim Burton and starring Colin Farrell and Michael Keaton.

13. ‘Glass’ (Jan. 18)

After a creative dry spell, once-fascinating writer-director M. Night Shyamalan rebounded in 2015 with highly enjoyable horror-comedy “The Visit,” which he followed up in 2016 with “Split,” starring James McAvoy as a killer with multiple personalities and seeming supernatural ability. At the end of that film — a spoiler alert at this point probably isn’t necessary — we see Bruce Willis as David Dunn, his indestructible hero from from Shyamalan’s dark 2000 hit “Unbreakable.” Well, it’s time to embrace the Unbreakaverse (wait, are we not calling it that?) with “Glass,” named for Samuel L. Jackson’s returning villain from “Unbreakable.” The previews look promising, but the January release date has me concerned the film’s studio, Universal Pictures, doesn’t exactly think it has a big hit on its hands.

14. More returning TV

For various reasons, I’m looking forward to more episodes of “Rick and Morty” (The Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, TBD), an uneven but at times mind-bendingly spectacular animated series that sat out 2018; “Star Trek: Discovery” (CBS All Access, Jan. 17), which in its first season was all over the place but was dark in a way “Trek” rarely is; “The Crown” (Netflix, TBD), the beautifully shot and acted drama about Queen Elizabeth II, with the third season taking place after the passage of some years and Olivia Colman taking over the role of the queen, Tobias Menzies portraying Prince Philip and Helena Bonham Carter playing Princess Margaret; “Veep” (HBO, spring), the biting comedy series starring “Seinfeld” alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus as now former U.S. Vice President Selina Meyer being one of the most consistently hilarious shows on TV for years; and “The Walking Dead” (AMC, Feb. 10), which has the potential for new life following the departure of series star Andrew Lincoln and a time jump in the first half of this, the ninth season of once-acclaimed zombie-apocalypse series.

15. ‘Us’ (Theaters, March 15)

Considering his remarkable debut as a horror writer-director with 2017’s Oscar-nominated “Get Out,” you can’t help to be figuratively dying to see this follow-up from Jordan Peele. Surrounding a family trying to enjoy a getaway to a beach house that encounters a group of strangers, the film boasts a cast that includes Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss.

A moment on music

I, however will wait — as I have for several years — for a new album from Tool. The Maynard James Keenan-led progressive-metal band hasn’t released an album since 2006’s “10,000 Days.” (We really should have read more into that title at the time.)

Tool has many reasons for its delay, but the act responsible for incredible tunes that include “Pushit,” “10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)” and my favorite, “Lateralus,” seems serious about a 2019 release.

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Mark is a lifelong Northeast Ohioan and an Ohio University grad. Along with loving music, movies and television, he is crazy about sports and tech. Reach the author at mmeszoros@news-herald.com or follow Mark on Twitter: @MarkMeszoros.